Below copied from a prior Whammo86 post - this has great flexibility - -----
Shara is really flexible.
An idea I like is to have 2 tiers in football but that retain some open spaces at the start of the season. It can increase the number of interesting games for teams.
So something that would be good would be to have a 20 team All Ireland. 12 team tier 2.
Play a 6 game Shara schedule say (can incorporate Provincial championships)
Top 8 into quarterfinals 9-10 automatically retain their spot for next season 11-14 have a playoff round to retain their spot for next season 15-20 lose their spot.
Tier 2 finalists get a spot in following season's tier 1.
Following season:
14 teams in National League played as a 4 game Shara tournament progressing to semifinals.
Remaining 18 teams play a Shara tournament to qualify for the 20 team AI tier 1.
4 game schedule
Top 4 to Tournament semifinals and AI tier 1
5-10 play a 6 team playoff for remaining 2 places.
I'm really trying to maximize the number of meaningful matches here.